Brendan Eich initially tried to argue that his beliefs about gay marriage were
“personal”, but that didn't work

Brendan Eich’s resignation from Mozilla demonstrated one thing: that people’s work lives and their personal lives are no longer separate.

The 52-year-old entrepreneur had a hugely impressive CV, including a long career at Mozilla and the creation of JavaScript, a hugely influential software programming language. In pure technology terms, he was a shoo-in for the job.

However, Mr Eich’s personal track record attracted a bit more controversy. In 2008, he made a $1,000 (£600) donation to support California’s Proposition 8, which attempted to ban gay marriage in the state. (The bill won majority support at the time – albeit by a very slim margin – but it was eventually struck down as unconstitutional under federal law.)

That donation haunted Mr Eich this week, as gay rights campaigners questioned how he could square his own views with Mozilla’s very public support of equality.

Users took umbrage at the apparent inconsistency. OK Cupid, the dating website, delivered not an arrow shot but a lethal blow when it asked users to boycott Mozilla’s Firefox internet browser.

Mr Eich initially tried to argue that his political beliefs were “personal”, telling The Guardian that he had "kept them out of Mozilla all these 15 years we've been going".

"There’s a difference here between the company…versus the project and community at large, which is not under any constraints to agree on LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] equality or any other thing that is not central to the mission or the Mozilla manifesto," he said.

That might have worked when he was on one of the lower rungs of the company, but as its figurehead it didn’t wash. Just 10 days after he took the helm of the non-profit organisation, he was forced to resign.

Mr Eich is not the only business chief to hold controversial views, of course. Gay rights campaigners have also focused on Meg Whitman, chief executive of Hewlett Packard, just a few miles down the road. Mrs Whitman vociferously opposed gay marriage when she ran for governor in 2010, but shifted her position a few years later when she took HP’s helm.

She may have had a genuine change of heart. It may have been a shift of convenience. She may have lost the gubernatorial race, but she has shown a clearer grip than Mr Eich on the importance of the personal on corporate politics.